Map: Visualizing Every Ship At Sea In Real-Time

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Today, in a similar vein, we highlight a website that tracks the world’s ships in real-time, providing a unique picture of what is happening at sea. Below is a screenshot from MarineTraffic and going there will allow you to see all major ships in real-time as they voyage around the Deep Blue Sea.

Here’s a screenshot of the Strait of Hormuz, showing only oil tankers. (Dots are tankers that are not moving, while arrows represent tankers that are currently on course.)

And here are the ships going through the Strait of Malacca, which at its narrowest point is only 1.7 miles (2.7 km) wide.

If you want to get oil from the Persian Gulf to the South China Sea, this strait is vital – otherwise a big ship must detour thousands of miles around the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Java to find the next suitable waterway.

Coast of Somalia

Compare those above straits to the coast off of Somalia, where piracy and hydrocarbon theft are major concerns.

All is pretty quiet, aside from the one daring tanker that is about 500 miles (800 km) east of Mogadishu.

Antarctic Cruises

One other easy observation?

It’s the few passenger boats hanging around the Antarctic Peninsula – which is the part of the continent closest to Argentina and a destination for cruise ships.